Resilient Hawks fell just short

PORTLAND, Maine — Senior captains Dan Lizotte and Nick Janes sat on the artificial turf of Fitzpatrick Stadium when it was over, either unwilling or unable to get up.

Several of their teammates walked back toward the bench with tears in their eyes.

Over the course of these dizzying last three-plus months, players on the Marshwood High School football team believed they could accomplish everything.

They were almost right.

The Hawks’ 44-42 loss to Mt. Blue in the Class B final Saturday night stung, without a doubt. In a back-and-forth offensive show, they had an answer every time the explosive Cougars (12-0) tried to drop them to the canvas permanently.

But coming up one score short couldn’t take away what the Hawks (10-2) accomplished this fall — winning the program’s first regional title since 1989 and restoring the faith in the purple faithful after three straight 2-6 seasons.

With time will come both perspective and appreciation.

Afterward, their coach was already there.

“The big picture is it’s a high school football game,” said first-year coach Alex Rotsko, talking on a hill above the field as Mt. Blue players charged over to their fans with the championship hardware below him. “There’s worse things in life, as we’ve found out this year.

“They’re resilient. They’ll shake it off. We’ll get in the weight room Monday and start getting ready for next year.”

To call this an eventful first season at Marshwood would be an understatement. Even with Rotsko’s sterling resume coaching football in Western Massachusetts, nobody expected the Hawks to be within one score of a state title when it was over.

“You know, as cliché as it sounds, for a 16-year-old kid, even though we lost, this is probably one of the greatest moments of my life,” said junior quarterback Cameron Roll. “It’ll be a highlight and I’ll remember it for as long as I live.”

But there were also tragedies off the field the program had to deal with, things that will also surely be remembered for a long time.

The one that hit the hardest was the October death of last year’s quarterback and captain, Troy Pappas, following an accident at Bates College. Five months before that, assistant coach Guy Lajeunesse lost his battle with brain cancer.

Three days before the state title game, another former Marshwood football player, 25-year-old Jason Cynewski, died in a car accident.

Through it all, players came to practice each day and worked to get better, to understand the new schemes the coaches introduced, the Wing-T offense and 4-4-3 defense, and to execute them.

As the wins piled up, the respect from outside the program grew. On the final weekend of the regular season, the Hawks doubled up Westbrook, 40-20, to state their case as the best team in Western Maine Class B. They followed that with playoff wins over Cape Elizabeth (27-7), Wells (15-13) and York (21-20), every one of them dramatic.

Marshwood athletic director Rich Buzzell said a conversation he had with defensive coordinator Tim Briggs over the summer turned out to be prophetic. Briggs had been a graduate assistant under Rotsko back in his AIC days in the 1980s and early ’90s.

“I asked Tim, just give me your impressions of Coach,” said Buzzell. “He said, ‘I’ll tell you this: I can’t guarantee the wins and losses, even though he’s been successful in that. But I can promise that our kids will be better kids by playing for him.’

“I look back on that conversation now and he’s right.”

On paper, the Hawks have lots coming back next year: Roll, a running back until this preseason, played quarterback like a star Saturday night, rushing for 126 yards on just nine carries, and hitting on 3-of-5 passes for 102 yards and two scores after getting intercepted early.

Sophomore Brett Gerry had a breakout year, rushing for 1,189 yards.

Not that there won’t be losses. Lineman Eric Pratt had a hand in two sacks Saturday night. Lizotte, a hard-nosed fullback/linebacker, was one of the team’s emotional leaders, and personified the mental toughness they developed over the course of the season.

In all, six starters are graduating. And for those returning, well, they know what it’s like to be in a fight. In a 48-minute game, they led for all of 14 seconds.